Thick Shakes...Here We Come!

Greetings all! Today marks the two-week anniversary of our arrival in New Zealand! Our travels continue with relative ease. All of our limbs are in tact, and Matt still has one working ear and most of his fingers, so all things considered, we're doing pretty darn good. We've made our way well down the west coast of the South Island at this point, but before we divulge the details of the our current adventures, we've got some catching up to do!

When we last left off, we had just acquired our valiant steed, the Emerald Smaug. Now we were ready to begin our journey south, across the Cook Strait to Picton, a harbor town at the north end of the South Island.

The Bluebridge Ferry, which travels from Wellington to Picton, and on to the Undying Lands

Our travels in the South thus far could be summarized in a number of ways. One could describe them as a grand traverse through a dazzling array of widely varying ecosystems and geologic features, as we've crossed dense forests, rugged mountain ranges, craggy beaches and seen an immense glacier that travels 7 miles down through mountains and ends in the middle of a rain forest. One could describe it as a cultural immersion experience, as we've met and worked alongside people from China, Egypt, England, Japan, Ireland, Chile and of course native New Zealanders. However, those are pictures, stories and lessons for another time, as for now, we will relay our tale through our ever-changing  adventure in accommodation!

While it's not generally the most exciting aspect that pops into someones mind when they think about travel abroad, accommodation is, especially over a long period of time, a weighted factor of every day's planning. After all, shelter is a basic human comfort, and when you don't have a house, trailer or apartment to go home to every night, you always have to consider where you're going to rest your head. Fortunately, we have the warm embrace of our Emerald Smaug to rely on, but because we occasionally like to have showers and a place to eat, we generally like to take advantage of the widely available affordable dwellings here in NZ. But you can never really be sure what to expect.

               Best case scenario                                                       At least they had a pool...at one point

Our first experience came in the lovely town of Nelson, in the heart of wine country right on the coast of the Tasman Bay. We had heard a fair amount of praise for Nelson, and even if we hadn't, we were just in high spirits to be on the road and exploring a new land. Now, we don't want to take anything away from Nelson. It certainly is a beautiful coastal city with a lot of personality and a very friendly population. We just happened to outline an itinerary for ourselves that included all of the worst the town had to offer.

This started at our hostel, whose name we shall conceal so as not make mudslingers of ourselves. Our evening's shelter was essentially a frat house. Although it was a beautiful building, it had been defiled by the beach bums who occupied it and sat around playing video games all day. Every surface of the vast downstairs was covered with beer cans, stacks of papers, dirty plates and scattered cigarette butts. The poor proprietor was a comical old guy who mostly stood around shaking his head at the poor quality of help he head to keep his hostel running. His number two was a really nice young guy who, upon our arrival, showed up at the check-in desk after we'd been standing there for 10 minutes, and said simply "I'm Reception!" His name was more likely something like Brody or Chet, but either way, after digging through a mountain of papers for a few minutes, he found some keys to give us, and showed us to a room whose door had been used for the scene in The Shining where Jack chops his way into the bathroom.

"Reception"

With our spirits slightly dampened, we decided we should just grab a quick bite and get some sleep before we took to the road again the next day. We had heard good things about a Thai restaurant just a little ways away, so we eagerly headed out the door to grab some food. The town was pretty quiet that evening, so when we parked across the street from our restaurant, we pretty quickly noticed the loud music and flashing lights that were coming from the space above the Thai restaurant. We then noticed a fair number of what appeared to be scantily clad women wearing low-brimmed baseball caps, all conversing and smoking out the window above our restaurant. Finally, we noticed the sign that hung directly adjacent to the sign for our restaurant: Secrets: Gentlemen's Club. Now, maybe this genuinely was a discreet gathering place where the young men of the community could convene and discuss their affairs in private, but we tended to doubt it, and even at the risk of being called a couple of squeamish Americans, we know that everything that rises must fall, and eating below a brothel can never be a great idea.

So, this all just goes to show how a couple of wrong turns can sour an experience in an otherwise beautiful place, and we quickly found out how a couple of fortunate choices can positively enhance the experience in an exceptionally ordinary place, for our next destination was Greymouth. As the name implies, Greymouth is kind of a grey destination (and its sits at the mouth of the Grey River, but that's irrelevant). Despite this being a rather ordinary town, we found a real diamond in the rough at the Global Village Hostel.

Now, when we've told people since our time in Greymouth that we spent 5 days there, they usually assume that our car broke down. Apparently, the locals don't exactly consider it the cultural epicenter of their country. However, when we arrived at Global Village, we were welcomed by such a feeling of calm and tranquility, that we decided to stick around for a little bit. The place is owned by a very kind couple of world travelers, Russell and Yurie, and they're assisted at their operation by Simon, a young Englishman who, 3 years ago, was himself just a traveler who dropped in for a night. We noticed that they had a few other people who did some work in the mornings, so we decided to ask if there was any work they needed done in exchange for a few more nights in their haven. They were gracious enough to offer us some gardening work (outdoor detail!), so we stuck around for a few more days, happily tending their garden, planning our next leg of the trip, and even making time to finally go see the  Hobbit (wait for the DVD).

Although we were sad to leave our new friends, we were ready to continue our journey south. That mostly catches us up to where we are now (after a brief and mixed stint in Franz Josef). We're currently in Fox Glacier, which is where we'll pick up next time.

(Spoiler alert: We discovered a Catton in New Zealand!).